• Rural, critical access and safety net hospitals have not expanded initiatives to address social determinants of health in vulnerable patient populations, and some are implementing fewer such strategies, according to an analysis of survey data collected during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts to develop community partnerships especially have lagged.
• Insufficient financial and community resources, workforce constraints, limited institutional partnerships and a lack of incentives were among the possible explanations for the stalled momentum offered by researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
• For state and federal policymakers looking to alleviate health inequities by implementing programs focused on social needs, addressing resource barriers that hospitals serving vulnerable populations face should be a priority, the researchers said in a report published in JAMA Health Forum.
• Read both articles. 

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